Stop Putting Me In A Box
Identity cannot be contained.
Stop Putting Me in a Box explores the pressure placed on Black women to fit within narrow expectations of beauty, appearance, and identity, particularly standards historically shaped by Eurocentric ideals.
The installation features charcoal and chalk portraits of Black women, each presented in an individual box. Each portrait is paired with the woman's own words, sharing personal experiences with colorism, beauty standards, appearance, and how others have perceived her.
The box becomes both a physical structure and a metaphor: a boundary representing the labels, expectations, and assumptions that can attempt to define a person before her full identity is known.
By bringing portraiture and personal narratives together, Stop Putting Me in a Box shifts the focus from how Black women are categorized to how they see, define, and speak for themselves.
Part of The Colorism Project, the installation continues a larger exploration of color, identity, representation, beauty, and belonging.
Stop Putting Me In A Box (Indiana University of PA) - Cardboard boxes, charcoal and chalk portrait drawings with transferred text on (30) various size boxes. 2018.
Stop Putting Me In A Box (close up shot of the portrait on the box) - Cardboard boxes, charcoal and chalk portrait drawings with transferred text on (30) various size boxes. 2018.
Stop Putting Me In A Box (University of North Carolina Wilmington) - Cardboard boxes, charcoal and chalk portrait drawings with transferred text on (30) various size boxes. 2018.
Stop Putting Me In A Box (close up shot of the portrait on the box) - Cardboard boxes, charcoal and chalk portrait drawings with transferred text on (30) various size boxes. 2018.
Stop Putting Me In A Box (University of North Carolina Wilmington) - Cardboard boxes, charcoal and chalk portrait drawings with transferred text on (30) various size boxes. 2018.
Stop Putting Me In A Box (Indiana University of PA) - Cardboard boxes, charcoal and chalk portrait drawings with transferred text on (30) various size boxes. 2018.
Stop Putting Me In A Box (close up shot of the portrait on the box) - Cardboard boxes, charcoal and chalk portrait drawings with transferred text on (30) various size boxes. 2018.
Stop Putting Me In A Box (Indiana University of PA) - Cardboard boxes, charcoal and chalk portrait drawings with transferred text on (30) various size boxes. 2018.
Stop Putting Me In A Box (close up shot of the portrait on the box) - Cardboard boxes, charcoal and chalk portrait drawings with transferred text on (30) various size boxes. 2018.
Stop Putting Me In A Box (Phosphor Project Space) - Cardboard boxes, charcoal and chalk portrait drawings with transferred text on (30) various size boxes. 2018.
Stop Putting Me In A Box (Indiana University of PA) - Cardboard boxes, charcoal and chalk portrait drawings with transferred text on (30) various size boxes. 2018.
Stop Putting Me In A Box (Indiana University of PA) - Cardboard boxes, charcoal and chalk portrait drawings with transferred text on (30) various size boxes. 2018.
Stop Putting Me In A Box (Indiana University of PA) - Cardboard boxes, charcoal and chalk portrait drawings with transferred text on (30) various size boxes. 2018.
Stop Putting Me In A Box (Indiana University of PA) - Cardboard boxes, charcoal and chalk portrait drawings with transferred text on (30) various size boxes. 2018.
Stop Putting Me In A Box (close up shot of individual box) - Cardboard boxes, charcoal and chalk portrait drawings with transferred text on (30) various size boxes. 2018.
Stop Putting Me In A Box (Indiana University of PA) - Cardboard boxes, charcoal and chalk portrait drawings with transferred text on (30) various size boxes. 2018.